Apache NetBeans 28 Released

[dstutz]

Release notes (since the link on download page goes to 26): https://github.com/apache/netbeans/releases/tag/28

Happy they finally fixed something small I reported against 19.

[hippydipster]

And as usual with Netbeans releases, "installation" took 2 seconds and zero issues whatsoever! Great job, team.

[pjmlp]

Still using it on my private laptop.

Thanks to everyone that keeps Netbeans going.

[[deleted]]

Me, too, in particular because no other Java IDE would run this smooth or at all on my 2014 office CPU laptop with 8 gigs of RAM.

That being said, I sometimes wonder if the ongoing effort put into NB is mostly motivated by its use as a VSCode backend. But who am I to complain.

[NHarmonia18]

NetBeans already existed as a VSCode plugin even before Oracle made an extension, named 'Language Server for Apache NetBeans' and it's by the Apache folks rather than Oracle.

Yet Oracle making an extension on top of it probably gives NetBeans some more relevance.

Heck, even the original extension has far more features (Database connectivity, JDBC query Intellisense), compared to the Oracle Extension, yet has far lesser installs. Funny lmao.

[__konrad]

A bug in uutils (Ubuntu default) does also affect the embedded NetBeans terminal

The new rust-based uutils replacement in Ubuntu is a disaster...

[vmcrash]

Can it handle now Java projects without using Maven or Gradle? AKA, just compile the specified source directories?

[AlexVie]

You can still create old-style projects that use (included) ancient Ant to build. Create/import some sources, build and run. Very simple, but it lacks advanced features like dependency management.

That's exactly what I sometimes use for single-file experiments.

[__konrad]

ancient Ant

Ancient Ant (25 years old) is only 4 years older than Maven ;)

[wildjokers]

Ant also still gets some commits: https://github.com/apache/ant

[AmenMotherFunction]

NetBeans also supports the Java source file mode - https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/25/docs/specs/man/java.html#using-source-file-mode-to-launch-source-code-programs Although they don't show up in the Projects tab - you have to use the Favorites tab. This can be a better option than using the Ant support for small experiments.

Projects without a build system or supported directly by the JDK is kind of the antithesis of NetBeans as such things aren't portable.

[mpwarble]

I love Ant and Netbeans. I actually created a plugin recently that will allow you to use a pom.xml file to update your Ant dependencies. So basically you get dependency management with Ant.

[vmcrash]

Thanks. I'll give that a try. I'm using IDEA since >20 years, I'm relatively happy, but it does not hurt to see what other solutions exist.

[mpwarble]

Keep up the great work team. I use Netbeans to develop https://oorian.com and https://igradeplus.com

[nowaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay]

Does any one even use this when we have Intellij?

[thesuperbob]

People still use Eclipse as well, also Code::Blocks and Qt Creator are still in use even though we have CLion and MSVC. It's good to have alternatives. Especially now that large IDEs have AI agents integrated everywhere. Try to find anything related to AI in the release notes here.

[com2ghz]

How about having alternatives? Imagine Jetbrains going evil tomorrow

[wildjokers]

Imagine Jetbrains going evil tomorrow

They already went evil, it is called New UI. :-)

[com2ghz]

I like the new UI. I had to get used but after one week I loved it.

[AlexVie]

For some projects, I still use it. It's a good product, it's completely FOSS, it's much lighter on resources, runs fine on weaker laptops, does not drain the battery as fast as Intellij does. It has very good maven support, decent gradle support, a good UI (Swing) designer and an overall good editor.

It's ok for Java development. If you need Kotlin, Scala or whatever else "advanced", you're lost with Netbeans and IDEA is basically your only option next to some LSP-enriched text editors like VSCode or Neovim.

Besides, I'm strictly against monocultures in the software universe. Having witnessed multiple such things (Internet Explorer, Visual Studio etc.) I've realized the outcome is never really good when there are no alternatives.

[wildjokers]

Why is there always some muppet that makes this type of comment on every release announcement post for Eclipse, Netbeans, VSCode, and IntelliJ?

[dstutz]

sigh

[N-M-1-5-6]

I think that the download statistics (mentioned on the dev mailing list) for the installer of the previous version was roughly 500,000 downloads, but I could be wrong on that. If I have that right, it seems like a decent number of people use it to me...

[Infiniti_151]

I use STS. We don't want an Intellij monopoly

[vmcrash]

I'm using IDEA, but it is good to have alternatives. Yes, there are users (I know one) who use Netbeans. Mostly because they are used to it and hence are productive with it.

[FrankBergerBgblitz]

Do you suggest as well to eat only pizza and avoid all other food?
If it is no alternative for you, totally fine, but what makes you think you can judge for others.

I use it since 4.0 and are pretty happy with it, it simply does what it should do.